A few weeks ago I posted the birth story of Maya Patience, Katie's 1st homebirth. This is the story of Katie's 2nd homebirth. Definitely read Maya's birth story, then come back and read this one!
Pearl is my second baby and second homebirth. Same midwife, bless her heart. I love her immensly! Anywho, I was 22 years old. My pregnancy was pretty uneventful. I hadn't even had any elevated blood sugar levels like I did with my first. Smells really bothered me with Pearl, though. Ugh, I remember I could not handle incense at ALL. And I could not get enough popsicles, lol!
Okay, so anyway. I had just seen my midwife earlier that day and she told me I would be having the baby anytime. So that night I was not surprised when I went to the bathroom and discovered I was losing my mucus plug. I got ready for bed and went to bed as usual. At about 3 am or so I was having contractions that were mildly strong and decided to get up and watch some tv and eat popsicles (lol). I did not wake the girls' dad because I wasn't entirely sure I was in labor. I thought maybe I was just gearing up but not in full on labor because the contractions didn't hurt near what they did with my first and my water hadn't broken like it had with my first either. So I sat and ate popsicles, watched tv, and had contractions for about 3 hours til I decided to wake up the girls dad. I woke him up and let him know that I thought I was in labor and we called my midwife shortly thereafter. I was like "um, no hurry, I think it'll be awhile". She said she was on her way.
So this was about 7 am when we called her. She got to our house about 7:45. She checked me and laughed. I was already 7 cms! I couldn't believe it! This labor was a breeze! So she felt around on my belly. Every thing seemed great. I labored a while longer. Then all of the sudden with each contraction there came a glob of straight meconium! So, my midwife checked me again and as she puts her "finger went straight up a little butthole", lol! The baby was coming butt first! The little booger had flipped at some point in late labor. Very rare. My midwife told me straight up- We can go to the hospital now and they will most likely give you a c-section, or we can go ahead and do this. I said lets do it! She called a midwife friend of hers that specializes in breech birth and talked with her for a couple minutes. So I continue to labor. The baby is doing fine, I'm doing fine. My mom shows up right before I start pushing. I swear I pushed all of 5 minutes and out comes this little baby girl.
Pearl was born butt first into the world at 9:45 AM April 19th 2000. My midwife says she just unfolded beautifully into her awaiting hands. She had the most perfect little head and a purple bruised booty, lol! She was my smallest baby at 7 1/2 pounds. And by far my easiest birth! And it was a much quieter reception than with the first. No hordes of hippies this time, lol
